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Russian media are reporting Vladimir Putin has not ruled out contacting US president-elect Donald Trump in the lead-up to his inauguration.
The world has watched the relationship between Putin and Trump with interest. During the Russian president’s 2018 visit to the White House, Trump defended his counterpart against US intelligence allegations of Russian electoral interference.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Finland, 2018. Putin is yet to congratulate Trump on his election win.Credit: AP
Earlier this year, Trump threatened to let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” if NATO allies did not lift their defence spending.
But while world leaders have queued up to congratulate Trump on his victory, the Russian president is so far not among them.
Russian news agency Interfax reported Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for Putin, didn’t rule out contact between the pair in the coming weeks.
“It is not excluded. He [Trump] said that he would call Putin before the inauguration. There are his words,” Peskov said, however elaborated that the administration had not contacted Trump since his win.
“No. Why should we get involved?” Peskov said.
According to him, Putin does not plan to talk with Joe Biden, as the outgoing president. Peskov said any meeting between the presidents would be well-prepared in advance, adding the government was “not working with the Biden administration”.
“Behind each meeting there is a lot of work at the expert level. There is no such work yet, and it is too early, who should we work with?” he said.
During election day US intelligence authorities issued warnings of Russian operatives trying to influence the election through online misinformation, while fake bomb threats at polling booths in Georgia were put down to Russian interference.
